I'm Baaaaaaack..................

Hello, all my blog fans out there! I am back in mi casa. It was a long, very tiring trip. But worth every moment. I just wanted to say a few words in closing and post two last photos.

 Looking out my window at the wing-tip of the American Airlines 767 we flew from Dublin, Ireland to Chicago. It amazes me still how these large planes can stay up in the air--especially when you hear the pilot say we are flying at 32,000 feet above the earth!










Our flight from Dublin to Chicago was about 7 hrs. We left at 10:00 am Ireland time and arrived about noon Chicago time (Dublin is 6 hours ahead of Chicago). We had a four hour layover in Chicago, which became very boring. We had planned to be in the Customs and Immigration line for a couple of hours to "kill time." However, Ireland had this really cool U.S. Pre-Customs set up, so we cleared customs before we left Ireland. It went really fast, too, because it was early and no one was in line. The next flight was delayed, which added almost another hour to the original 4-hour wait! However, we got going about 5:40 pm and arrived in San Diego at about 7:30 pm. Erica was booked on Continental Airlines, so her flight times were a little different, and she came in shortly after us. We picked up our luggage and went to a hotel room to sleep before we headed to the Valley. We had been up for about 22 hours. The planes were too crowded and cramped to sleep in.

The next day (today, Mother's Day Sunday) we went to Old Town Mexican Cafe in Old Town San Diego. Erica had been in Ireland for four months for her Spring semester of college, so she was craving Mexican food. Here she is showing us how excited she is to have "real" Mexican food--something you can't find in Ireland.










So, the adventure is over, but definitely not forgotten. I want to thank all those who prayed for travel mercies for us. God is very good to us, and a mighty God--I thank Him for the blessings of safety and great weather. I've enjoyed keeping all my friends up to date on my travels and sharing some pictures of where we went and what we saw. I love Ireland! I miss it already and hope I can return someday!

Erin go bragh!!

Friday, May 6, 2011--Our Last Day in Ireland

Well, this is the last full day in Ireland. It has truly been an adventure, and this is a beautiful country. I am proud that my Great Grandmother on my dad's side, Catherine Ann Brophy, and probably my Great Grandfather's family, back a few "greats," came from Ireland. God has allowed this trip, and it seems life has circled back around to bring me here.

Today, we tried the DART-Dublin Area Rapid Transit. It was a pretty cool train, and wasn't very costly either. We rode it south to a seaside town called Bray. This village looked exactly like where the Irish go for their holidays. It was beautiful, cold, windy--but absolutely a place I would want to return to and stay in.

 Here is the ocean from the DART.

 Olivia and Erica on the train.

Here I am with the Irish Sea as a backdrop.

The Irish Sea and me......it was cold, but beautiful! I love the seaside.

The restaurant we had lunch in at Bray.

 Fog

Some of the beautiful Victorian architecture.

 Return trip to Dublin City.

 Irish graffiti

Back in Dublin. This is the outside of our train.















It was a lovely end to a great trip. As I said before, I love being by the ocean. And the Irish Sea is no exception. I hope I get a chance someday to return to Ireland. But if I don't, I am truly grateful to the One Who allowed this to happen.

Now, just a few pictures of our everyday routine in Dublin. These are the type of buses we rode every day. It was nice being on the top, because you can see everything. The bus drivers are very good at their job--they can maneuver these giants anywhere. And believe me, the streets are not that wide.

I saw this from my seat on the top of the bus. These are bicycles throughout the city that anyone can rent. There is no person handling the rental, you just go to the stand where they are locked, put in the money, it unlocks, and away you go on the bike (or something like that). Not sure why this truck was carrying several of these. Perhaps they had been repaired, or they were being redistributed.

Home sweet home for the last two weeks. We had the first floor apartment on the left.

On the walk down our street to the bus stop.














I hope you have vicariously enjoyed my trip. I've tried to give you a little bit of an insight into this wonderful place. Tomorrow, back to the USA. Irish Blessings to all!

May 5, 2011--History and Relics of Ireland

Today, I decided I wanted to explore the National Museum of Ireland: Archeology and History. This museum contains artifacts from archeology finds throughout the country believed to be back as far as 5,000 B.C. Even if the dating is inaccurate, the objects and articles are fascinating.

I tried to view the items in a somewhat chronological order. The first were from the stone age, and several objects made from stone, including axes and hammers, as well as stone beads were displayed.

Next was the bronze age, when men began to use metals, and shape them into useful and decorative objects. 

This museum had a display of objects taken from the Hill of Tara, which I visited yesterday. Below is a model of what an aerial view of the Hill looks like. 

These are some of the many artifacts found in the Mound of the Hostages at the Hill of Tara. These were all contained in graves of people.

This was gold jewelry discovered in various parts of Ireland believed to be from the Bronze Age in Ireland, approximately 1200 to 1000 B.C.

Close up of the one of the necklaces above.

 Close up of a bracelet in the display in the first picture above.

 Close up of the jewelry from the second photo above, the far right piece.

 The next few exhibits were of men found in the Irish peat bogs. The bogs are a natural preservative, mainly because no oxygen is in them to deteriorate specimens. This is the real hair of one man found in a bog.

Another man from another bog. He looked like leather, but other than being flat, he was intact.

 Close up of his head and hair.

 Close up of a hand of another bog man--his fingernails were still intact!

Wide view of the above. He had been decapitated and cut in half.

 View from the top where the head would've been attached.












After my museum adventure, we met up at O'Neill's Bar and Restaurant. This is one view of the stairs going up. The whole place has several nooks and crannies--very interesting architecture.

Left: Roast Beef, Yorkshire pudding, roast potatoes, mashed potatoes, veggies and gravy.

Right: Fish and Chips and veggies

This is the second time I have seen two types of potatoes in one meal!

Left: Full Irish Baguette, including chicken, bacon, mozzarella, lettuce and tomato--it was huge! This is only half of it.

Right: Deep fried Dublin Bay Prawns and chips.










Now.......while we were waiting for the bus to go home, we looked across the street and noticed that someone had put bubbles in the fountain which I had taken a photo of a few days ago. It was probably a college kid, since Trinity College is just a few hundred feet in front of this statue. We were amused!

High Kings and Passages

Wednesday, May 4, we went on a Mary Gibbons tour to the Hill of Tara and Newgrange. The Hill of Tara is where the high kings of Ireland ruled way back in the day (the exact time frame escapes me right now. We heard so many dates today, I can't keep track). Newgrange is a Neolithic Passage Tomb, which has been dated to about 3200 B.C., and makes it the oldest intact structure in the world, 1000 years older than the pyramids of Egypt.

Here we are getting ready to leave on our bus from Dublin City Center.

 First stop, the Hill of Tara. This is one of the views from the Hill. It was said that 23 counties of the 32 in Ireland could be seen from this hill on a clear day. Today was a little too hazy, but the view was fabulous!

This mound on the Hill was called the Mound of the Hostages. There were no archeologists with us, so we didn't get a detailed description. Another problem is that scientists don't exactly agree on what was on the Hill.

 An ancient tower in the distance, possibly an abbey.

 Inside the mound of hostages.

 Another view inside the mound of hostages. Note the art work on the door.

Me, on the Hill of Tara, between two monuments. One had illegible words, the other had no markings on it at all.

 Another view from the hill.

 These next three photos show some of the terrain on the Hill. It is hard to tell at ground level, but from the air, these form circles.

A statue of St. Patrick, erected many, many years after the hill of Tara had been abandoned. The word is that St. Patrick brought Christianity to the Hill of Tara in 432 A.D.

We left the Hill of Tara, and journeyed on down the road to Newgrange.

This is the River Boyne

 The Neolithic passage tomb known as Newgrange.

The stone at the entrance to the passage, it is carved with swirly patterns.













It is believed this monument took anywhere from 10 to 60 years to complete, around 3200 B.C. The different rocks and stones used to create it were brought from far away parts of Ireland. It can only be speculated how the larger stones (found around the base) were brought here. When excavated in 1969, a narrow passage which ended with three alcoves was found. In each alcove was a large stone that had been somewhat hollowed out to make a type of bowl. Within the bowls were found ashes, bone fragments and trinkets made from stones and bones. It was also discovered that on the 21st of December, the shortest day of the year, the Winter Solstice, the sun shines into that top opening in the entrance, and shines down through the passage, and illuminates the back of the passage for about 17 minutes. It occurs about 6 days surrounding that day. The rest of the days, it is completely black. We were given a demo while we were in there. Creepy dark! Anyway, the reasons for putting cremated remains into the passage (they had been cremated outside the tomb), is unknown.

More carvings outside the tomb.

Here we are on the back side of the tomb. Erica is doing her "model" impression.

 On our way back to Dublin, we passed this field that was completely yellow. I don't know what's growing there.

Before going home, we stopped at The Temple Bar restaurant and pub for a snack, beer, and some Irish music. We had a great time.